Wire-walking Toronto raccoons shrug off hillbilly dancing as passing fad

Earl Sweatshirt @ Sound Academy Friday

Kanye West's second favourite MC Earl Sweatshirt aka "Mocha Desire" hypes his new album

Margarita Hronova Vs. Doobie Brothers

RIP Mick Farren, 1943-2013

Sadly, counterculture icon Mick Farren passed away last night after a Deviants gig at the Borderline.

LINKS
Dangerous Minds obit 
The Quiteus Mick Farren Interviewed 
Trouser Press Mick Farren's recordings

One For The Weekend: Count Ferrell

See Pokey LaFarge @ The Horseshoe tonight

Country threat Lindi Ortega takes over Yonge-Dundas Square Friday night

CCMA nominee Lindi Ortega joined Tim Timebomb and crew for a twangy take on The Ramones

Latin jazz icon Eddie Palmieri explains why he plays piano like a drummer

Midweek Mixdown: Black Jade

The Go-Betweens' 1984 Peel Session

See the fabulous Alex Pangman @ Manhattans in Guelph on Saturday

Whaddya mean you don't know Bubba Thomas

Kids In The Hall's Bruce McCulloch @ Hugh's Room, Tuesday

Legendary Italian horror-prog thrillers Goblin descend on Toronto in October

After four decades of chilling Italian horror film fans, Goblin have decided it's time to tour North America and they've scheduled their Toronto debut at the Opera House on Friday, October 11.

The Italian soundtrack supremos are threatening to play all of their classic cues from the Dario Argento films Profondo Rosso (aka Deep Red), Suspiria, Tenebrae, along with songs from the albums Roller, Il fantastico Viaggio del Bagarozzo Mark, and most recent Back To The Goblin. Other famous scores never previously performed on stage will also be knocked out on this tour.

This whole reunion concept took root in 2005, when Goblin guitarist Massimo Morante and keyboardist Maurizio Guarini, together with the rhythm section of bassist Fabio Pignatelli and drummer Agostino Marangolo, recorded a new album, Back To The Goblin, after a lengthy absence.

Four years later, they had their chops together enough to start touring Europe and then managed to coax Claudio Simonetti back into the fold in 2010. A successful swing through Japan and Australia last year led to plans for the current North American tour slated for October.

The current Goblin line-up features original 1975 members, Keyboardists Claudio Simonetti, Maurizio Guarini and guitarist Massimo Morante bolstered by two heavy hitters from the Goblin-inspired group Daemona, drummer Titta Tani and bassist Bruno Previtali who joined the group with Simonetti in 2010.

Providing tour support (up to October 20) will be Secret Chiefs 3, formed by Mr. Bungle founding member Trey Spruance. Cali-based multi-instrumentalist and producer Spruance also runs the Mimicry label who've put out albums by Estradasphere, The Youngs, Cleric, Danubius, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Brazzaville and the amazing Dengue Fever.

But enough about that, here's Goblin blasting Death Dies from the Profondo Rosso soundtrack...

Whaddya mean you don't know Evariste

Chance The Rapper @ The Hoxton, Monday

You can download Chance The Rapper's Acid Rap mixtape right here.

Pasha Hristova Vs. The Knickerbockers

Peter Zaremba's Rock Delegation (w/ Crummy Stuff) shakes The Sister

Hear Peter Zaremba discuss the Fleshtones, MTV, Urgh! A Music War after the live clip

One For The Weekend: Lennie Hibbert

Montreal, You've Been Warned!

Amateur meterologist Frankie MacDonald warns Montrealers of rain storm on July 19. 

Rachel Hurwitz fixes "Ironic" for Alanis

Cool Snow for a hot day from Kelly Haigh

Vancouver's Kelly Haigh croons a sweet version of a Hank Snow country classic below

"Thought I'd sing a song by a swell fella with a COLD last name just to see if I could cool things down in here. It didn't really help, but I hope ya like it! No Letter Today is my new favorite song, and I can't stop singing it."
Kelly XO

Tristen's CAVES album due in October

After viewing Tristen's clips below. you can pre-order her new CAVES album at www.tristen.com

Broadview & Gerrard – October 8, 1914

Don't miss Parquet Courts with Woods @ The Horseshoe on Wednesday

Caitlin Rose launches NoiseTrade's Eastside Manor Sessions in style

For the inaugural release of NoiseTrade's Eastside Manor Sessions, the soulful sounds of Nashville's Caitlin Rose were captured for an exclusive live performance EP which you can download here. Backed by a top-notch band of players she had hand-picked solely for this session, Caitlin re-imagines songs from her latest album, The Stand-In, dressed in a vintage country vibe.

In addition to the digital EP, check out the accompanying short film for an inside view of the proceedings during Caitlin's wonderfully relaxed session interrupted with annoying questions from a novice interviewer.

Happy Birthday Denise LaSalle

Happy Birthday Scott B!

Scott B Sympathy with Ian Blurton, John Borra and Gord Cumming rock the Slither Club in '89

Sathima Bea Benjamin's 1976 spiritual jazz gem finally gets reissued

Press release

Matsuli Music is proud is announce the re-issue of African Songbird, the spiritual jazz masterpiece from South Africa’s greatest jazz singer, Sathima Bea Benjamin. Originally released in 1976, African Songbird was a debut long overdue. A 1959 recording, which would have been one of South Africa’s first ever jazz LPs, was shelved. Her 1963 recording with Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn was put aside by Reprise’s then head of A&R, Frank Sinatra, for not being commercial enough.

African Songbird is a tour-de-force, and arguably the most dramatic and powerful release on Rashid Vally’s As-shams label. The opener, ‘Africa’, is the album’s fulcrum, a statement of breath-taking musical, personal and political complexity. It is a song of exile, of loss, and of return: a song that is both personal and universal, speaking for a people made homeless in their own land, speaking to those whose ambivalent embrace of exile ached for a homecoming. It speaks too of hope and resolution. 

Africa is a personally powerful declaration from a remarkable African woman: a song of deferred self and dislocated space finally resolved in an emotional homecoming.  It is a song of celebration and mourning – a heartfelt paean to her home that is shot through with the raw sorrow of lament.

Sathima’s voice, wholly unique in jazz singing, gradually sheds its musical supports as the programme develops. From the thickly-layered tumult of Africa, through the characteristic Cape Town swing that informs Music, the instrumentation is quietly reduced, then finally dispensed with. The title track is performed acapella, but for the natural sounds of the sea coast, the gulls and surf of the Cape itself. After many years of silence, two deferred albums, and over a decade of rootless exile from a home that had been made inhospitable by the inhumanity of apartheid, Sathima’s voice is finally heard, alone with her song, naturally, like a bird.


Sathima’s career has been challenged throughout by a struggle to be heard. She never played on her African roots to gain acceptance internationally, and her complete commitment to classic jazz idioms never wavered: as an African artist, this made it difficult for audiences, critics and record companies to understand the nature of her talent. The unique genius and global success of her husband Abdullah Ibrahim (aka Dollar Brand) cast its own shadow, and as the mother of two children, music could not always be her first priority. These challenges were exacerbated by the pressures of political exile, and for Sathima, due recognition was late to arrive.

In recent years Sathima Bea Benjamin’s extraordinary life and unique work have received the critical attention and acclaim they richly deserve. Despite this, African Songbird, her first released record, has remained unavailable and largely unknown. This reissue remedies that situation in restoring and making available again an important keystone in South Africa’s jazz heritage.

Sathima Bea Benjamin currently lives in Cape Town. She continues to perform the material that she first recorded for this disc. In association with Rashid Vally and Sathima Bea Benjamin, Matsuli is proud to present this album in its original form, making it available again for the first time since initial release. A crucial piece of South African and global jazz history, African Songbird is courageous, revelatory music, and Sathima’s unique voice is the bearer of its message. It’s easy to see why Ellington was convinced.  Check it out...


LINKS 
http://matsuli.blogspot.ca/

Remembering Joe Harriott on his day

ShowYouSuck asks "why waste a good night out being Straight Edge?"

The Chicago MC's new album One Man Pizza Party 4: Slice After Death is out July 23.

Happy Birthday Albert Ayler

See Damo Suzuki @ The Rivoli tonight

Adrian Younge on being sampled by Jay-Z

Magna Carta Holy Grail was bolstered by samples from Adrian Younge's Something About April

Alysha Brilla CD Release Party @ Amsterdam Bicycle Club tonight

Alysha Brilla's singing has been officially approved by Kitchener's Victoria Park ducks.

LINKS
www.alyshabrilla.com
www.facebook.com/myalyshabrilla
www.twitter.com/abrillinger 

One For The Weekend: Ebo Taylor

See Wire @ Lee's Palace tonight

Check out Wire's brilliant 1979 performance on Rockpalast below.

LINK
site http://www.pinkflag.com/

Boffo Bollywood: Chailla Babu (1977)

Julia Holter launches tour with new video

The new Julia Holter video for In The Green Wild – the second clip from her forthcoming  Loud City Song (Domino) album has just appeared to coincide with her tour with Jessica Pratt (right on!) that begins in Washington, DC on July 11. Don't fret, there's a Toronto date too. Check out her new Yelena Zhelelov-directed video after the official press release (below). A complete list of tour dates follows. Yes it's true Zilnia and Haldern-Rees, she's coming your way!

“In The Green Wild” follows the main character of Loud City Song on a path out of the city and into the trees. It is the best example yet of Holter's playful-yet-focused approach to songwriting and production– her elastic, expressive voice weaving a patiently poetic narrative through a rich tapestry of double bass, abstracted horns, cello, strings and synth before building to a transcendent crescendo.

Loud City Song is Holter's first studio album proper, and it both continues and furthers the singular vision of its predecessors, 2011’s debut Tragedy and last year’s Ekstasis, as she experiments with intricate arrangements of words and pop melodies to build both an individual collection of songs as well as one unified story -- a "song" of songs.

Loud City Song will be available on CD, Double LP and digitally on August 20, 2013 and is available to pre-order from Domino now. Pre-orders of the album will receive an instant mp3 download of ‘In The Green Wild.’ 

Julia Holter Tour dates

07-11 Washington, DC - Sixth & I Synagogue @

07-12 New York City, NY - Le Poisson Rouge @

07-13 Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live @

07-14 Boston, MA - The Church Of Boston @

07-16 Montreal, QB - La Sala Rosa @

07-17 Toronto, ONT - The Drake @

07-18 Detroit, MI - Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit @
07-19 Chicago, IL - Constellation (Official Pitchfork After-Party... shhh!) @

07-20 Chicago, IL - Pitchfork Festival

07-23 Lisbon, PT - ZDB

07-24 Madrid, ES - Theatro Lara

07-25 Cartagena, ES - La Mar De Musicas

07-26 Barcelona, ES - Caixaforum

07-27 Lyon, FR - Les Nuits De Fourvieres *

07-29 Ravenna, IT - Hani-Bi

07-30 Modena, IT - Sant Augustino

07-31 Geneva, CH - Ecoutes Au Vert @ Barje Des Sciences

08-03 Katowice, PL - OFF Festival

08-04 Zilnia, SK - Stanica

08-05 Vienna, AT - WUK

08-07 Basel, CH - Im Fluss Festival

08-08 Haldern-Rees, DE - Haldern Pop

08-09 Hamburg, DE - Kampnagel Summerfest

08-10 Goteborg, SE - Way Out West

08-11 Helsinki, FI - Flow Festival

08-13 Ghent, BE - DOK

08-14 Saint Malo, FR - La Route Du Rock Festival

08-16 Brecon, UK - Green Man Festival

08-17 Skipton, UK - Beacons Festival

08-20 London, UK - Cecil Sharp House

09-11 Los Angeles, CA - First Unitarian Church

09-12 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall

09-14 Portland, OR - Holocene

09-15 Seattle, WA - Barboza

09-16 Vancouver, BC - Biltmore Cabaret

@ w/ Jessica Pratt

* w/ Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

LINKS

Site http://juliashammasholter.com/

FB https://www.facebook.com/pages/Julia-Holter/153196178042232

Twitter https://twitter.com/JULIA_HOLTER

Happy Birthday Lee Hazlewood

Remembering Tom Thomson, killed at Canoe Lake July 8, 1917

The Jack Pine (1916-17) oil on canvas by Tom Thomson

Alejandro Escovedo tops TURF's stacked Sunday line-up @ Fort York (1 pm) and The Horseshoe (10:45 pm)

TURF – OUTDOORS @ Fort York

Sunday, July 7th Gates: 11:00AM
8:30PM	Belle & Sebastian
7:10PM	Neko Case
6:00PM	Xavier Rudd
5:00PM	Cat Empire
4:00PM	Whitehorse
3:00PM	Yo La Tengo
2:00PM	Kurt Vile & The Violators
1:00PM	Alejandro Escovedo & The Sensitive Boys
12:10PM	The Sadies
11:20AM	The Wooden Sky

Whadya mean you don't know Grupo de Experimentación Sonora del ICAIC

JD McPherson @ The Horseshoe tonight!

Happy Birthday Michel Polnareff

Celebrating Michel Polnareff's birthday with his ace 1971 instro Voyages

Wayne Kramer on Blues Kitchen Radio

Liam Hart's interview with Wayne Kramer starts at the 11:00 mark below

Blues Kitchen Radio with Wayne Kramer of The MC 5

Happy 50th Birthday Martin Phillipps!

To coincide with Martin's 50th, The Chills have issued a new song via Fire Records (below)

The Chills - "Molten Gold"

Also on 8-track: The Diodes

The Diodes are featured in part 2 of Peter Vronsky's 1977 punk documentary Crash 'n' Burn below